Flood risk management in Austria: Analysing the shift in responsibility-sharing between public and private actors from a public stakeholder's perspective |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Institute of Mountain Risk Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria;2. Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands;1. Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, Weberplatz 1, 01217, Dresden, Germany;2. Environmental Sciences Group, Wageningen University & Research, Postbus 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, the Netherlands;1. Faculty of Society and Design, BOND University, Queensland, Australia;2. Faculty of Social and Economic Studies, Jan Evangelista Purkyne University in Usti nad Labem (UJEP), Czech Republic;3. Solicitor, Environmental Defenders Office, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia;1. Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg 1, 2628 CN Delft, The Netherlands;2. Bax & Willems Consulting Venturing, Roger de Lluria 120, Barcelona 08037, Spain;3. UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, P.O. Box 3015 DA Delft, The Netherlands;1. Department of Business Administration, National Quemoy University, No. 1, University Rd., Jinning Township, Kinmen, 892, Taiwan, ROC;2. Department of Long-term Care, National Quemoy University, No. 1, University Rd., Jinning Township, Kinmen, 892, Taiwan, ROC;3. Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Ecology and Sustainability, College of Environmental Studies, National Dong Hwa University, No. 1, Sec. 2, Da Hsueh Rd. Shoufeng, Hualien, 97401, Taiwan, ROC;4. Department of Business Administration, MingDao University, Wen-Hua Rd., Pitou, Changhua, Taiwan, ROC;1. Radboud University, Institute for Management Research, P.O. Box 9108, 6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands;2. University of Antwerp, S.Z. 101, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium |
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| Abstract: | The frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events are expected to increase due to the effects of climate change and socio-economic development. Potentially higher flood risk, hence, triggered debate about a shift in flood risk management from mainly public to increasingly private involvement. So far, public flood mitigation schemes were standard modes to deal with flood hazards in many countries, including Austria. With high implementation and maintenance costs as well as substantial losses remaining, alternative management approaches have increasingly been discussed. This paper analyses the debate on shifting responsibilities in flood risk management from public to private actors and whether or not the current governance arrangement would accommodate this shift in the public-private divide. Based on qualitative research, we explicitly analyse this potential shift from an institutional perspective and not from the perspective of individual homeowners, taking the case study of Dornbirn (Austria) as an example. The results show that, firstly, the current governance arrangement hardly encourages property-level flood risk adaptation measures. Secondly, several factors stabilise the current governance arrangement and prevent a shift in the public-private divide. Although the need for an increased sense of responsibility among private actors seems to be evident among interviewees, strong historical narratives and adaptive expectations lead to a society seeing public authorities to be responsible for flood risk management and trust their expertise as well as the technical flood infrastructure. However, such areas of expertise and law are fragmented and therefore impede a redistribution or enforcement of responsibilities. Furthermore, fixed costs delay a shift in the public-private divide as the traditional engineering approach (i.e. structural measures) is predominant with high investments in the current system but limited investment in risk communication to raise awareness. Yet, a shift towards sharing responsibility might contribute to flood risk management for risks to remain manageable. |
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| Keywords: | flood mitigation flood risk management policy arrangements approach responsibility-sharing risk governance |
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